c a s p e r *
"Good morning everyone!" Mrs. Webster says from the front of the classroom. "As soon as everyone is here, we will get started! We are beginning a very fun, important, and exciting project today!" Mrs. Webster teaches my Life 101 class; I'm not sure that a project in this class will be fun, mostly because it's a class about life, but also because this next week we only have two days of school as the teachers have to have meetings and take classes. (I'm not sure if this is an actual class, or if all high schools offer it--mine doesn't--but it was the only class that really fit this project haha).
As soon as all of the class (mostly my class, the Seniors, but there are a few Juniors) files into the classroom and finds their seats, Mrs. Webster begins.
"Good morning, everyone! Today, we are starting a fun, week-long project!" she announces. Everyone groans at the prospect of having to do a project over their mini-break from school.
"Now," Mrs. Webster continues, plowing through the complaints. "You will need partners, which I have already assigned, and then I will tell you the project."
After a few people, she calls my name. "Casper Walker, you are paired with Mateo Sanchez."
I hear a sharp intake of breath to the left of me, a couple of people behind the first row. I look up and see that it was from David Martinez. "Ooh," David says, patting his shoulder. "You got Casper the Friendly Ghost..."
"Shut up," Mateo hisses at David and David silences quickly.
"Mateo, please go ahead and move up to sit with Casper." Mrs. Webster says.
After everyone has been assigned a partner, Mrs. Webster looks around the classroom.
"Alright, so, tomorrow, you will all be having a child!" she says. "We have realistic-looking babies that we have bought and placed batteries and timers in so that they will act like a real baby! I will know whether or not you take care of him or her, too! Today, your assignment is to come up with a name! I will be assigning you a boy or girl baby today! Today, you will decide on a name, how you will parent, and bring in clothes for tomorrow. Casper and Mateo, you two will be having a daughter!"
After school, Mateo and I meet up in the courtyard.
"So, you wanna come over to my house to discuss our daughter?" Mateo asks.
"Why are you being nice to me?" I ask him.
He looks taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're popular and I'm not."
"So? Look, I know we've had our differences, but I want to get past them. For our daughter."
"She's not even real!"
"I want to be friends, okay?"
I agree. "Me too... we've been 'enemies' for too long... so, can I follow you? To your house?"
"Yeah,"
I follow Mateo's car to his house and we go up the stairs to his bedroom.
"So, this actually works out pretty well because my sister has a bunch of baby stuff that she's no longer using. My niece just turned one, so she has a car seat that has a stroller, she has clothes, left-over newborn diapers that she never got rid of, blankets, socks, shoes, a bassinet, a bouncer, and a baby wrap. She'll let us borrow them! We can put the car seat in my car." Mateo says, looking over at me.
"Sounds good," I say. "How am I going to transport her, though?"
"I thought that you could just stay over here while we had her? It would make it easier, and then we wouldn't have to have a schedule?"
I nod. "So, I'm thinking, one of us comes up with a first name, and the other comes up with the middle name?"
"Okay, but we have to agree on them."
"Deal,"
After looking for about twenty minutes, Mateo finds a first name that I agree on, and I find a middle name that he agrees on: Scarlet Ellery Walker-Sanchez.
"I'll get the stuff from my sister, and bring it to school tomorrow?" Mateo asks.
"Yeah, that should be fine, and then after school, I can meet you here? Will you be okay with our child for fifteen minutes alone?" I ask him.
"I think I'll survive,"
I smile and laugh.
The next day, he walks into the class with a car seat attached to a stroller. While trying to get into the classroom, he accidentally runs into someone else's stroller and it runs over their foot; I stifle a snort behind a cough, looking up at him as he gives me an awkward smile, obviously trying not to laugh as well.
Mrs. Webster comes over to us. "Did you decide on a name?" She asks us as Mateo unclips a diaper bag from the handles of the stroller.
"Yes, ma'am," I say.
"Good, good! Will you go ahead and write it down? I'll take it up after class starts!" She moves to the next desk over. As I write Scarlet's name down on a piece of paper, Mateo pulls out a green pacifier (the kind you get from the hospital) with a pacifier clip, a bottle that looks like it has milk in it, but I think is laundry detergent and has superglue in the bottle nipple, a white onesie that says 'bows before bros' in black print with little baby shorts that have cactuses on them and are ruffled at the waistband, and a matching green headwrap bow, a thin white swaddle blanket with Mickey Mouse on it, and some white socks. (I used to have a reborn doll and for the bottles, I used laundry detergent to look like milk and put superglue in the nipple of the bottle.)
"Their mouths open, so we can use pacifiers," Mateo explains, seeing the confused look on my face at the pacifier. "There's also a baby wrap in here, but I don't think we need it right now."
Mrs. Webster comes around and takes up everyone's papers with their baby's name on it. After she's taken up the papers, she drags a box onto the top of her desk. She pulls out the most lifelike baby doll that I've ever seen.
"Are you sure that's a doll?" I ask Mateo under my breath.
"Yes," he says, but he doesn't sound too sure. She walks over to us with the baby doll, that has a full silicone body. Before she hands us our 'daughter' she makes sure it's turned on underneath of its diaper.
"Now, the program used to make the baby act real is attached to the outside of the baby's butt, so when changing the diaper, there will be a small box on the baby's back." Mrs. Webster says, and then hands us the baby, now known as Scarlet.
After school, I drive to Mateo's house, running a few minutes behind him because Mrs. Webster caught me before I could leave the building to ask me something. When I walk into Mateo's bedroom with my duffel bag that has my clothes for the week in it, he's got the bassinet set up on his side of the bed, a portable changing table with bottles, pacifiers, and diapers in it, and a plastic three-drawer cart with baby clothes and bows in it. There's a small basket on the floor with blankets in it, as well. The car seat is on the floor, and the baby is in the bouncer.
"Wow..." I say.
"Yeah, I know, my sister got really excited and just gave me a whole bunch of crap," Mateo says.
I raise my eyebrows as I look around the setup.
"Where can I put my stuff?" I ask him.
"Right here," Mateo says. "We're going to share the bed. I'm not making you sleep on the floor,"
That night before bed, I look over at Mateo who is 'tucking' Scarlet into bed. When he comes back over and sits down on the bed, I jerk him to me by the front of his shirt and kiss him hard. I feel him tense up from the shock, but moments later, he starts kissing me back and puts his hands around my upper arms.
"I-I-I'm so sorry," I stammer when we pull apart. "I--"
He silences me by kissing me, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me.
"I've wanted to kiss you since the sixth grade," Mateo says breathlessly, leaning his head against mine.
"R-really?" I ask. "Y-you just, I-I've--" I stop and then try again.
"I've liked you for a few years now, but you just looked so cute when you were being a 'dad' and I just--I really like you," I say, the words all tumbling out of my mouth in a rush.
He smiles at me and kisses me again. "I really like you too," he says.
I smile at him. "So, do...do you wanna try this? Us, I mean?" I ask him.
"I'd like that," he says, smiling.
"Me too,"
I lean in and we kiss once more.
1/26/20
That was an awful whirlwind of a story... I used to have three reborn dolls and used the bottle hacks. I also used food coloring to make it look like apple and orange juice, and chocolate milk, I think.
